Bandai FL U-Boat JOYSTICK Issue

[woolfman]

Hello,

me again

One of my most favourites games, and the same goes for the packaging...so nicely and colourful. Playing against an unexperienced Opponent is fun, because it´s easier for them to play the destroyer than the U-Boat (mostly played by me).

Here´s my question:

I noticed that the Destroyer is moving far slower than the U-Boat , when you play the Destroyer´s side. But it´s different than when you play U-Boat´s side - the Destroyer is suddenly (?) as fast as you or even faster....has anyone an explanation for this?
Is the joystick somewhat damaged?
Or this normal with your games?

What I also noticed is the joystick controls on Destroyers side are not that responsive...is this a corrosion issue or kind of normal?

EDIT: I discovered the same with Tandy´s Alien Chase - Player 1 Joystick is a bit slow in reaction. Contact Problems???

Thank you for reading...hope someone of you who plays the game has an answer to this is. I really love the game
_________________
Regards,
Wolf

[Rik]

There's a good chance that the rubber button contacts are rotting. There's usually a series of rubber things between the joysticks (and buttons) and the circuit boards. They look kind of like suction cups, and also frequently double as the 'spring' that lifts the button back up after you push it (or move the joystick). Over time, one of 3 things can happen:

1- Frequent playing can cause the thin rubber wall of the 'cup' to break. This reduces (and eventually looses completely) the buttons ability to spring back up. The round black disk that actually makes the button connection will just sit on the circuit board rendering the button useless (or very un-responsive), and it will eventually break free completely and then the button won't work at all.

2- Frequent playing can cause the black conductive material on the circuit side of the rubber thing to wear off. The more that this wears off, the less responsive the button is.

3- The rubber can actually rot or harden and disentegrate. When this happens it won't spring back up (so sometimes you get one good fire, and then it quits working), and it will eventually break up and fall into pieces inside the game. This is usually caused by climate and storage condition. I've seen this on games that have never been played...

Fix: For 1 and 3 It must be replaced with a new one. If you don't have an exact replacement, anything that can be cut up to fit will probably work. This is why it's good to always have a few trashed games stored somewhere that you can cannibalize for parts. When I want to throw away a game, I always keep the rubber buttons parts if it has them.

To fix #2, you can either replace it, or super-glue little round pieces of aluminum to the piece were the black paint is. Replacing is best, but if you don't have any, the aluminum will work, but it sometimes falls off...

One other thing that might happen, but usually to fire buttons, is that the plastic part of the button that's supposed to press down this rubber overlay will break off (or be pounded down from repeated use) making it harder to use the button. This usually requires replacing the button for a perfect fix, but sometimes you can glue a piece of plastic to fill the void. Joysticks usually don't have this problem.

Keep in mind there's still the chance of loose wires and damaged circuit boards, but the rubber things are the most frequent failure of buttons on handhelds.

Hope that helps some... This would probably make another good 'general repair' section with photographs...

Rik

[woolfman]

Thank you for your input, I´ll keep that in mind